Tallinn, Estonia
The three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have some of the worst rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the world, the World Health Organization reported this week. The kind of TB prevalent in the Baltics is resistant to the two medicines most commonly prescribed, and treating it costs up to 100 times more than treating regular TB. Even with expensive drugs, it is often fatal. Health officials worry that the “superstrains” could soon spread to Western Europe, because Baltic citizens will be able to live there when the Baltics join the E.U., this May.
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